Railway spike



Oct. 21, 1952 H. R. OLTZ ET AL I 2,614,450

RAILWAY SPIKE Filed Sept. s, 1948 Patented Oct. 21, 1952 H r-AT Es j Howaia'mou'z'ana Hast i. Fag-a; f

1" -Los GatosgCal if Application September 3, 1948;"erial' blo.

1 Claim. (obes -23) 7 The present invention relates to railway spikes and more particularly to a railway spike of the type having retainers for preventing the spike from working loose in the railway tie.

We are aware that it is-not new broadly to provide railway spikeswith devices intended to help in retaining the spike in'place in'a railway tie. However, all of theseexpedients with which "we"ar'e" familiar are for one reason or another not practical. H I if A It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved railway spike of the type having specialanchoring means which is simple and rugged in construction and which may be manufactured at'low cost.

An additional object is to provide a novel railway spike of the above type which may be effectively placed by ordinary track crews by ordinary techniques.

Yet another object is to provide an improved railway spike of the above type which is positive in action and which exerts an extremely high resistance to withdrawal or loosening of the spike.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of our invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a spike embodying the present invention as it appears when driven into a railway tie, a portion of the spike being broken away so as better to illustrate the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a portion of the spike drawn to larger scale than Fig. 1 illustrating the retaining means;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view through the retaining means and may considered as being taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; 1 Fig. 4 is a sectional view through a portion of a railway tie showing the form of indentations made in the tie by the retaining means of the spike of Figs. 1 to 3; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the retaining fingers used in the manufacture of the spike of Figs. 1 to 3.

The spike embodying the present invention is illustrated generally in Fig. 1 and comprises essentially a conventional railway spike In which has been modified so as to add the retaining members thereto. Unlike the ordinary railway spike the shank portion is formed at a point just above the tapering end 12 to provide a transversely extending generally rectangular hole I4 which extends completely through the spike from front to back. The rectangular opening may in a typical example be approximately eleven thirty-seconds of an inch wide and about an eighth of an inch high. This transverse passage through the-Spike is vertical slots 4 fiwhich; have a...depl hzz .l alfi l to .about one =third- :of.-the spikethickness intersected; at each -e front to back and a height including the of the passage l4 of about one inch. Thes slots provide, vertical recesses in, the; front and back faces of the spike. for a purpose to be pointed out presently. The slots are generally rectangular in contour and together with the transverse-opening 14 .forma continuous SIOUWhiChiiS' U-shaped in vertical section aroundq-a jcentr'ally located topmost element being the longest retaining member while the lowest retaining member is the shortest, those in between graduating in length between these extremes. The uppermost of these fingers has a length such that when it is inserted through the opening i l with the end of the partition I8 against its mid point and with its two ends bent upwardly within the recesses H and IS the two extreme ends take a position slightly below the upper ends of the slots I6. The lowermost set of retaining fingers has a developed length of approximately one inch or slightly thereover. The tips of all of these fingers are preferably formed so as to provide sharp points 22 well adapted to dig into the tie material. All six of these retaining members are properly oriented with their mid points in alignment and when so arranged are either riveted or welded together at their central points so as to inhibit movement of any of the retaining members relative to any of the others excepting in so far as the tips or points 22 are able to move relative to each other due to the flexibility inherent in the spring material itself.

The unitary stack of spring members just described is inserted through the passage [4 so that the mid point is against the end of the partition 18 and then all of the fingers are bent upwardly so that their ends lie in the slots I6. As soon as the bending force is removed the fingers will spring outwardly so as to take approximately the position shown in Fig. 3. This exact position is not critical but preferably the finger should be sufiiciently bent so that they will not become detached from the main body of the spike and thereby become lost.

When the spike is driven into a tie the fingers fold upwardly so as to permit smooth entry of the spike, although during downward movement of the spike they will tend to be urged outwardly bv tations, best illustrated in Fig. 4. Any attempt of the spike to' move upwardly will cause these fingers to dig still farther into the tie so as to exert an extremely strong retaining action; It

will be noticed that since the fingers are graduated in length from the bottom to the top the fingers will dig into the wood approximately the same amount and that the underlying spring fingers act in a buttressing manner to prevent outward bending of the uppermost members. This arrangement provides a very powerful retaining action upon the spike which prevents its working upwardly even under extremely hard usage.

" Having described our invention what we claim as new and useful and desire to secure by Letters Pa'tentof the United States is.

The combination with a spike having a head, a"'rectangular elongated shank and a pointed end, of a plurality of nested spring fingers, the

4 shank of said spike having an opening extending therethrough and a pair of shallow grooves formed in opposite sides of the same, the grooves being in communication with said opening, said nested fingers positioned in said opening with the points of. said fingers normally extending up wardly and outwardly from the sides of said spike, said fingers being adapted when said spike is being driven into material to lie within the grooves on the sides of the shank, said fingers HOWARD R. OLTZ. HERMAN J. FANGER.

REFERENCES CITED 7 The following references are of record in the file oi this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

